NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Biggest Weak Spots in AFC

Episode Date: May 26, 2016

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Colleen Wolfe– discuss the latest news from the NFL including Eric Decker's support of Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Cowboys announcing rookie Ezekiel Elliott has to earn his starting spot. Plus, the heroes break down the biggest weak spots in the AFC before answering more questions from the ATN Mailbag.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. What's up, everybody? DJ here from Move the Sticks, along with Bucky Brooks, our podcast. We look at the NFL through a player personnel perspective, looking at teams, looking at matchups, looking at the NFL draft. You can catch us on Move the Sticks, NFL.com slash podcast as well as iTunes. Podcast, mostly believes in aliens. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast.

My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by a room filled with some heroes. Colleen Wolf, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys, and girl? Hey, Dan. Hey, hey. Welcome, Colleen. I am the girl in the pod today. A lady.

Let's treat you with respect. You deserve it. I mean, I don't even know if that's better. No, that's not a lady worse than girl? I mean, you, I don't know. Do you want woman but with a why instead of a? Like, why can't you just say, hey, guys? Yeah.

It's nice to have you back. Do you, like, walk in the newsroom and say, hello, female. I'm like, hey, boys. Good girl. Colleen's sitting. I'm not going to change my intro. All right, all right, all right. You know, this is.

You do you, Dan. I like it coming after some host heat right here. It's nice to have you back. It's been a while. Colleen. It has been. You ever heard of like when someone loses their arm or leg? Phantom.

It's amputated, but they still feel it. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm always here. That's what it's felt like with you gone in the last few weeks. She's great. She haunts the studio? I don't know.

So she's the phantom leg of the around the NFL podcast. That's great. Add that to your Twitter. I'm sitting in the Mark Sessler chair. Mark on vacation. He'll be back next. week the last two shows that chair has been occupied by Connor or controversially have you do you have any thoughts on oh my god I loved the movies are polarizing and um the guitar was so good I need to meet that guy

Patrick Ongo just shredded on Wednesday show make sure you check it out if you have a lot of people saying that should be a regular part of the show which I would fully support I think we can we can work ways to have Patrick's music in here not just Patrick is so good literally around the corner i was thinking anytime there's any type of like special circumstances or uh some type of party on the podcast you get the accent here you get the amp and away we go birthdays whatever i like this idea of having more parties on the podcast if we ever do if we ever do is this a creed song or not he could he could play in the creed song i don't think he can play that poorly uh i'm i'm still by the way the development right before we went on the air that gregg has a tattoo oh oh I'm rocked by this.

What an acknowledgement by the boss. I feel like this should have come up at something. Well, we knew Mark has a tattoo. Wait, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Another surprise tattoo. Oh, my God. Yeah, Mark, I don't remember what it is, but it's on his arm, like near, like high up on his arm, like near his bicep.

And Greg, you have what? It's kind of on my upper back. What is it? The shoulder blade. Do you want to share? I'll keep that to myself for now. I'll give a hint. It's somewhat regionally specific.

as some regional it's a strawberry isn't it it's a strawberry truck oh yeah this strawberry truck that's actually a terrible clue now that I think of it's not even right it's not a starboard it's the state of Delaware no state it's nothing like that it's a map of it's Robert Kraft's face it's got to be something to do with New Orleans oh oh Gregs it topped at hometown that's right a little bit it's a fan boat Okay, today's episode of Around the NFL The Around the NFL podcast sponsored by no one. A big fun episode today.

We're going to crack open the mailbag at the end of the show. We haven't done that in a while. We'll see what the listeners want to know and we'll try to help them out. You know what I'm saying? Woman, Wolf? Yeah. I think. Where are you going with this one?

Yeah, we're trying to help you guys out. Okay Also Greg wrote a banger On the site Biggest weak spots in the AFC Last week you rolled out the NFC Edition of this correct

Monday yeah Oh Monday And now the AFC And just really good stuff I read it on my way back from Philly On the plane Thank you why is Wes cracking up so much Greg wrote a banger

I don't know I thought that was funny Really good stuff Greg once again showcasing his knowledge of the game and all the rosters of the 32 teams. Don't you feel like he's been showing off a little bit lately? He's very masculine of late as well. It's been big week for Greg.

He pushed me around in the NFL Now studio today. Wow. I likened it to how Harry Houdini was killed by a punch that he wasn't prepared for. Wes knocked off his feet by a Greg Rosenthal show. Did this happen downstairs? He fell onto the chair. Well, that's the good thing about being, you know, my size is that no one can get mad at you for coming after them

because it's just embarrassing. I laughed pretty hard. You're jumping up the masculinity rankings. Just soaring the tattoo. Yeah. Someone calling him the strong silent type. Whoa. He was in a band.

I mean, this is all working for you. It's all coming up, Rosenthal. What a week. Yeah, so we'll talk about that post. And then, of course, as we do every show, we're going to do a little bit of news. And before we get to that, we want to check in behind the glass, the Irishman.

How you doing, bud? It's Thursday, Dan. I'm feeling great. Yeah. Oh. Big softball game tonight. Yeah. The Shield.

I'm not going to be there. Yes. Neither will the other team. You're going to be doing HQ, the NFL Network morning show tomorrow. Yeah, so I'm going to have to, like, go to bed at, like, three o'clock. What a ridiculous setup for a program? What's your call time? What's your call time for that?

I usually get in around, like, one-ish. One in the morning. Yeah. I know. Who's the idea was this? You're doing it. an East Coast time on the West Coast. That's when we'll wrap up our post-game activities.

I know. I'm really bummed out about this. What I'm saying is you could pull an all-nighter. I mean, I could. Go full-less. Maybe I will. Welcome to Colleen's last appearance. Last day in NFL media.

Let's do some news, Irish. So I was very little. About one and a half, my uncle gave me a spoon. Spell it. S-P-O-O-N. And that's it. That's how it started. If my house was haunted, I would hear that child.

I have to say this. He needs to get some love. That's Akash. He's six years old and is in the script's National Spelling Bee. Nothing more annoying than a precocious child. Oh, Wes. Oh, Wes. How dare you.

No, what, Wes. Somebody that's active with the dating pool. Their parents think they're so exceptionally cute. Give me a break. He is pretty adorable, I have to say. Vox, Vox. Put him on a sitcom and ruin the show. That's amazing that they can spell these words.

I'm a terrible speller. I bet he doesn't tell funny jokes. Wait, what is this that? You're taking shots about, like, they add kids to sitcoms? Yeah, it's terrible. It's usually a Hail Mary Pass when they do that. And then the adults act like they're so precious because they know a little bit more than other six-year-olds. Tell us more about your feelings about kids.

I love kids. I just don't like adults acting like precocious kids are, like, the greatest things ever. There's kids need to be knocked down a pen. Dan's face right now. I'm just letting him go. He's got an opinion. Everybody shares their opinions on the show. Let's start the news, and we'll start with the Baltimore Ravens, who, you know what, as Greg put it in our piece,

their offseason practice schedule just got shorter. You know why? The NFL and the Ravens jointly announced Thursday that the team will forfeit one week of OTA sessions from June 1 to 3rd, June 1st to 3rd, and both the organization and coach, John Harbaugh, will be fine for violating the CBA violation of, for violating the CBA for a violation. That's your text body. No, it's not. It's fine.

I'm looking at it. Have been fine for violating off-season workout rules under the collective bargaining agreement. Don't believe. It's a lot in general. They're in trouble. John Harbaugh have been fired for violating the CBA for a violation of off-season work rules. We've got to get the edit team on that.

Anyway, the team is allowed. Got to edit out that whole part of the show. So we got to edit. Actually, let's do that. Keep it in. Keep it in. Keep it. Keep it.

This is disastrous for them, right? This is going to be a major issue. For the editor's desk or for the Ravens? For the Ravens. Why is it? It's not a disaster. I mean, the team is allowed 10 OTA sessions in the off season. The Ravens will be without three of them.

Everybody, come down. Let's be a professional here. The Ravens will be without three of them, but we'll still have all their mandatory minicamp and training. camp the ravens in a statement said we made a mistake and we are sorry for that we accept the NFL discipline are you worried about this i'm shaking my head at them right now i can't believe how dare they would do that no this means next to nothing i i agree not to the coaching staff they're probably really upset and yet i find i find it interesting because when this first came up

ian rapaport said the raven's sources told him we didn't know we were violating the cba and once we realized that we fixed it. Ian reported that the league did not believe the Ravens, that they knew exactly what they were doing, and there's some good proof out there. John Harbaugh has publicly gone against the OTA rules again and again, saying that it's stupid, that it's restrictive. I found a quote that said he believed the OTA rules are un-American.

And so they tried to break the rules. They've lost OTA times before in 2010. The only difference this year, apparently, is that they have Ben Watson on the team, who's high up in the union, and ESPN reported Ben Watson was the one that reported them. And so there you go. You should have had all this in your copy. That's interesting.

It is. It's all in there. I like that John Harbaugh goes full talk show host on us. An American. No, I googled the Ravens OTA stuff, and I was like, wow, there's a lot here. Every year he rails against them. So he tried to break the rules? I mean, doesn't every team in some way try to break the rules so they can get some type of, like, advantage?

Yeah, welcome to the New England Patriots. It's a super mic. Hey. Your team cheats.com. I mean, the crazy thing is it's so minor that they wore pads for one one thing. It was just more that they were sticking it in the eye in the NFL, so I don't think we liked it. All right, let's move on because it really doesn't matter. Lions running back, Amir Abdullah is recovering from shoulder surgery, which could keep him out all of the offseason workouts.

Jim Caldwell, the Lions coach said that Abdullah is recovering nicely, but gave no. no timeline for the running back's return. He's an interesting guy, Chris Wessling. He led the team with about 600 yards rushing last season, but had some issues with ball security, 4.2 yards of carry, which isn't bad, but for a guy that looked like a potential explosive breakout guy, it was a disappointing first year.

There's not a lot on the depth chart there. Stephen Ridley looked very slow with the Jets last year. Theo Riddick, let's not get too excited. Zach Zener, I know Sessler loves him, some Zach Zener, but they need Amir Abdullah to step up. up and be a better player this year, right? Explosive as in a really explosive burst and first step through the hole, and he has a lot of jukes, but not explosive in a power kind of way, and that kind of worries me.

From the history of running backs with shoulder injuries, I've just noticed over the years, they don't run with authority when they're coming off of shoulder injuries. We've seen it with Ryan Matthews, Mark Ingram, and then we see the next year after the shoulder injury, they look like a totally different back. This would concern me. Well, it's a bad backfield on paper, and Abdullah was going to be the clear, lead guy. When I went back and did that piece looking back at one of the rookies, at all the rookie he carries, he was among the most disappointing because I had such high

expectations on what happened. And I don't know if it was just the season war on him, but he didn't look as explosive as I expected. He looked like an okay between the tackles runner actually, but he didn't have as much juice as he seemed to in the preseason and early in the year. But didn't he get a little bit better at the end of last season? He made some plays, but he He wasn't consistent. I didn't see it and think, wow, wow, this guy has it. Like Matt Jones, for instance, I saw some things I think he can be special. Abdullah didn't quite show it.

I would add one caveat. I thought the Lions had the worst run blocking in the NFL last year. It's fair. Yeah, and the stats back that up. They had a league worst 83.4 yards per game rushing in 2015. So you've got to get a lot better. And losing Megatron, that was always a, you would think that would have helped their running game, having him there.

Now he won't be there, obviously. So we'll see what happens in Detroit. Moving on, this was something that did concern me with the New York Jets, this Ryan Fitzpatrick drama that is now carried into the beginning of their off-season practices. OTAs were open to the media in New York on Wednesday. And sure enough, a major topic of discussion was, where's Ryan? And Gino Smith, by the way, we talk about Gino a lot. Greg, I know we joke around about how much you like him.

But the bottom line is right now he is, the number one guy on their depth chart. However, now that things have started, the season has started or the off-season practices have started, you realize what a terrible situation this guy is in because he is the number one guy in the depth chart way more advanced and all the reporters saw it yesterday than the two kids, Petty and Hackenberg.

And yet, all anybody wants to talk about is Ryan Fitzpatrick. And the team has already went out and said as soon as Ryan Fitzpatrick rejoins us when and if, he's our starter. So where does that leave Gino Smith? And he actually snapped at a reporter who, asked about Ryan Fitzpatrick's contract situation. He said, that's up to the front office in Ryan Fitzpatrick. Why would I speak

on that? And then Rich Smedia of ESPN reported that he refused to take another question from that reporter. Meanwhile, a report from the New York Post, Ryan Costello, that Eric Decker, who was among three prominent Jets players along

with Brandon Marshall and Nick Mangold that did not show up for OTAs this week, at least Decker is not showing up out of solidarity. for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Get this guy back in the building because it's a huge distraction. Add it all up.

And I'm concerned. This is a team. This is a tough schedule. They got a tough schedule. Now they got this. I know it's May. I'm not going to put too much into it. Still crashing.

But I do not like it. I do not like the way things are starting. It's just bad juju. You have to like the solidarity. Yeah, I was going to say. Why would you like that? Because OTAs are meaning. this for veterans like Decker.

It doesn't matter if he's right. It doesn't matter if he's there, but to me, that's a cool thing to be standing by your quarterback. I agree, but I don't know if it's totally meaningless. I mean, you want Fitzpat, in a perfect world, you'd like Fitzpatrick to be there. You're right. I'm not worried that Decker is not there with Gino Smith this week in particular, but you would like your quarterback to be there.

It puts Gino Smith in this situation. If he ends up going through this entire off season and Fitzpatrick doesn't take a single snap in OTAs or mini-can, it's just a weird. It's a weird thing. It's not like Ryan Fitzpatrick is Joe Montana coming back and just has all this talent and experience in the system to lean on. He's Ryan Fitzpatrick. More like Joe Idaho.

It's probably not great that Gino Smith then was throwing to guys like Kimbril Tompkins and Jeremy Ross. Those guys are still in the league? I mean, it's fine. He's getting reps. And actually, if you want to look at a positive as a Jets fan, not having Fitzpatrick there for these type of practices, it lets the younger guys get a ton of work.

and they need a lot of work. But I don't know, it's just, you don't like, it's always something with the Jets quarterback position. And I just, I wish this would have been taken care of because if this carries through mini-camp, then it snowballs a little bit more. And then the pressure really comes on. I guess this gives Fitzpatrick a tiny bit of leverage,

but I don't think enough to make the Jets blink. So is there any part of this that maybe it, like, doesn't have anything to do with Fitsy? Like, I think it does completely, but they were, they already took part in some of the other team activities. And this is voluntary and their vet. and maybe they're just not showing up. It's possible.

Well, Mango had a kid, and Marshall is not related. So it's been reported that it is not related. But Decker apparently is, at least, according to Brian Costello. All right, let's move on. Let's talk about, you know what? I think it's time. It's that time of year, guys. What time is it?

It is a trope alert. Trooperate. Troponet. Troponet. Trooperate. Troponet. Tropic DeMarco Murray

looks like 2014 Murray in Titans practice. Youser. This according to that alarm is still going off. According to a lot of people.

According to a lot of people. Mike Malarkey. Mike Malarkey who's full of malarkey, let's be honest. Sorry, Wes. I certainly like some of the cuts I saw even without pads on. Those were cuts.

He wasn't going to get touched. down. It was going to be an explosive run. You can tell when a play is going to work and not work. He's got very good vision and very good feet. And a lot of these things are doing. He's run before, so it's not new to him. Marcus Marriota also had praise for the 28-year-old

back coming off a terrible season in Philly after being the offensive player. The year in Dallas the year before. Nothing a power running back does in padless practices means anything. Until people are hitting, then I might start believing it, but we need to see how he looks in training.

was an OTA ultimate, like, sign that OTAs have started. Two quotes came out about his cuts within five minutes of each other. It was like OTA seasons here. Troppelette. Troopalette. Troupleat. Thunder and thunder. The Cowboys use the fourth overall pick on Ezekiel Elliott,

but don't expect the young kid, the young buck, to get a starting job right away. Running back Gary Brown, running back coach, Gary Brown had this to say. He's going to compete. he told the Fort Worth Star telegram. Zeke has to earn it. I think that's the best thing for our team and for those guys going forward. Colleen, if this guy isn't the starting quarterback on day one, head should be rolling.

Well, yeah, I hope he's not the starting quarterback. Running back, excuse me. I mean, even Ezekiel Elliott looked at this and laughed. There's no, this is so ridiculous. Are you kidding me? What? You have to earn your position in the NFL. Shout out to Kevin Patrick who started this post with an italicized parentheses.

Dear Reader, please brace yourself for some wicked spin in classic coach speak. Thank you. Kevin, just going wild with the right. Hold on. Well, we move on. Yes. Darren McFadden averaged more yards per carry last year than DeMarco Murray did in 2014 while winning offensive player of the year. He also had the second most 100-yard rushing games in the league.

It's a bad year for running backs. Ezeko Elliott does have to earn it, and he came out right at the draft and said that. And he also said that that practice. What if Darren McFadden beats it? He's not going to happen, though. Even if McFadden outplays Elliot in training camp, Elliot's going to get the nod because they need to justify using a fourth overall pick on a running back. Yeah, all 16 games to justify.

While we're talking trope alerts, though, I love the headline in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Shell-shocked Ezekiel Elliott having to earn starting running back home. Why is he shell-shoe? I guess he said the speed of the practice really surprised him, so he was shell-shocked. Uh-oh. Trooper alert. I keep coming, guys. Trooper alert.

Troopalette Terrell prior Now a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns Like the best receiver on the Browns Besides Cory Coleman He would like to tell you That despite being new to the position I'm 10 times better than last year

I look at the film and it amazes me And I give that to receivers coach Al Saunders Because just sitting there and doing the extra meeting time With him and him really breaking down certain routes me and how he wants them to run. It's awesome. So the guy that looks at the old tape and says, that guy was a piece of garbage, I'm the king now.

Well, I hope he's better than last year. This is a guy who was, I guess, moving from quarterback to wide receiver, he's got to be better from what we saw. A lot of trope alerts here. Position change. You know, talk about that. That's a trope alert. Terrell Pryor is a trope alert on his own.

Just in general. Terrell Pryor is officially passed Jeff Dembs as the highest. post to production ratio in NFL.com history. It's a big moment for him. He gets one every day. Can you name a player who had successfully made an impact after having a major position switch? Oh, I'm sure there's some.

Joe Cleco. Like a made Pro Bowl three different positions. They were all defensive line. Yeah. No, I mean a substantially different position. Hey, listen. Say no more. Oh, no, another one?

Wow, there's so many. Troopalette. Saints safety, Jaris Bird. Jiris Byrd. Or Jiris. Bayard. Is injured in the off season. No.

Shouldn't we just, it's news when he's healthy? That's the trope. That's the trope. Every offseason, they just roll out the same old Jaris Bird is injured story. Let's come up with some new stuff, Saints guys. He is sitting out the offseason program because, of his knee. There's some soreness in there, but he's expected to be ready for the

start of training camp. Watch out. He'll be back. He'll be ready. He'll be healthy. All right. And that's what's happening in the news and the tropes. So now it's time for what? Oddenans.

Let's get some odds and ends. Get your odds and ends right here. Ooh. Wow. What a rendition. How about that? Are we going to close the segment that way? I need to record that. When you guys did that with Lindsay,

her laugh. Her laugh. Yeah, there was dancing that went along with it. Of course. That made me laugh so hard the last time you guys did it. So glad we're bringing it back. All right. So I have a couple odds and ends.

Lindsay's going to anchor the seg. No. Well. Should we bring her up? Whoa. Wow. Your fault for referencing. I'm a girl that's sort of blonde.

It's a tough day for Dan and women. Okay. Struggle to do it. So here we go. First up, Kirk Cousins, it's back now. The whole Creed thing that I guess this was last week when he talked about how they were working out and listening to Creed, which was cool. Which some teammates were refuting, correct? I guess so.

I mean, maybe there was only like a couple people in the gym working out at that time. I have no idea. But he opened up about his musical interests and talked about some of the other artists that are on his playlist. This doesn't sound. Yeah, so in addition to Creed, he also listens to Switchfoot. What? This is, I guess this is all on the case. This is his go-to playlist.

I believe that's a Nickelback cover band, Switchfoot. I think they were like a Christian rock band. It's a Christian rock band, uh-huh, yeah. So I think one of their songs is Love Alone is worth the fight. I remember they had a song called Men to Live in the early, oh, that's pretty big. Okay. Then Matt Carney, I don't know who Matt Carney is. No, Carbone. and the fray.

Oh, we know fray. Oh, yeah. This is the song he listens to when he's lifting. Yes. This is what pumps him up. I don't really, and parachute, like, so this is like, I mean, most people listen to, like, something, like, upbeat.

This is, like, a breakup song. I mean, I feel like these were the songs that I didn't even like listening to in 2005, but if they were, like, on the radio and I was, like, really pissed off and angry, like, driving around, and maybe switch foot would be on, but probably not. Angry at yourself. Yeah. So that's super weird.

You're pumped up, huh? Never defending this guy again. I look at him completely different. Anything else, Colleen? Okay, yes. Also, we had, all right, so this estate, this real estate blog called a stately. Yes. Well, I know.

I know, stately. Wait, okay, see, look at that. I love it. Stop it, Dan. So they gathered a bunch of data from Google to, find out what the most googled questions were from each state and actually will brinson did a great little write up on this and friend of the show yeah so for mississippi for example it was who is prince is prince dead who killed teupac um in kentucky what are jorts how to pass a drug test what is catfishing

and how to make a baby so poor kentucky but maryland how to pass a drug test has to be what in multiple names. The Jorts one, that's weird. What are Jorts? Everybody in Kentucky knows what a Jord is. Come on. So in Maryland, the most popular Google question is, is Joe Flacco elite? That's kind of awesome.

Which, let's see, I'm going to Google it right now. Well, I mean, I think the jury's still out on that one. The question is, it's been a joke around Joe Flacco's career for years now. But, like, everyone kind of glosses up. over the fact that it's actually like a really good question. It's so bad that like one of the third results that comes up is like a Donald Trump answers the question as Joe Flack-O-L-L-Lie. Trump got behind.

Wow. Yeah. And then also I saw that J.J. Watt is hosting the CMT Awards with Aaron Andrews. That makes so much sense. I can't take it anymore. All right. Enough J.J. Watt. I feel like I have to get off the J.J. Watt corner because he might kill me at this point.

That's true. Because I've been very vocal about. about my issues with him as a personality. But that makes perfect sense that he would be wanting to get involved with that show as a host. Yeah, I don't know. I've never watched it before.

I'm going to say, like, we can all continue not watching the country music awards. Fisting out of good Chris Stapleton and Sturgle Simpson. Not going to have a big impact. Who? Sturgle Simpson, Chris Stapleton? I've heard a Staple fan. Yes.

Sturgle Sympleton? Sturgle Simpson is even better than Chris Stapleton. Really? But is he better than the fray? Well, I mean, we're showing ourselves to be West Coat elites here, not knowing country music. Wasn't this crazy anatomy or something? That rings a bell, yeah. I think so.

Maybe. Yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah. Terrible. All right. Well, that's it. That's it.

And that was, odds and ends, odds and ends. Yeah. Get your odds and ends right here we have them. Odds and ends. Great. I love me. That was our third take, by the way. Everybody of that. No one will ever know.

Oh, except for anyone that follows me on Twitter. Oh, no. What's it worth you, Colin? I was reading an article. You know, that's how you got to get the social media accounts. Got to give extra content that you can't just get on the show. By the way, Wes, not to go back to another. But it was really bothering me the position change question that he posed.

Because I knew there had to be an answer, and I Googled it. I cheated. But there was a couple real ones. So a lot of them were safe for the quarterback. How long ago? Julian Edelman is a great one. No, that doesn't count. Why not?

I mean after they got to the NFL. He was a college quarterback, just like Terrell Pryor. Does not count. This is totally about once you've established yourself at a position in the NFL. You could say Ryan Tannihill as well. Did he was a quarterback in college? No, because this was a big thing when Tebow kind of flamed out. Everybody wanted him to move the tight end.

And my point was you don't just at age 25 after never having played. the position in the NFL, no matter how athletic you are, become a successful other position. The next best example. A lot of these were cornerback to safety, which I don't count. That doesn't count. Frank Gifford running back to life. Yeah, I'm talking like in the last 50 years.

But you're right. There weren't many good ones. All right. That's all. I wanted to do it. Oh, it was good. It was good scientist heat. I liked it.

All right, let's now move on. We'll talk about that Rosenthal banger. Biggest weak spot for each AFC team. why don't we go around the horn here and Greg went through every team Does this have a vanity URL? Does not. Bummer.

Ouch. I can work on that. In fact, I believe I did a now hit where I sent it to a vanity URL that I would later create and I forgot to create it. That's a problem. Slash NFC, AFC problems. All teams have strengths. All teams have weaknesses.

In this article, we will discuss the weaknesses of these teams and how they might hurt them down the road. Simple, I like it. I like it. Yeah. It's perfect. All right. So let's do it.

Let's go through the AFC. Colleen, do you want to get us going here? You can either piggyback on something Greg says. You can disagree with something Greg says or say something totally different. All right. Well, let's go with the cults here. And I actually liked Greg's point because he said the entire defense is a weak spot. But I think we should maybe like focus in on the front seven because that.

to me was like one of their huge weaknesses. I think both you had both the defensive line and the offensive line were huge concerns going into the draft. And they didn't address the defensive line until late in the draft, like I guess like maybe the seventh round. And you look at their edge rushers. These guys are getting so old. Robert Mathis, I mean, he's 35.

He's the only pure pass rusher. And then you have Trent Cole. Also, I mean, Kendall Langford, he has some good year. remaining, but, like, I think his best year was probably his first with them. And Arthur Jones, you're still waiting for him to get healthy. He's played, like, nine games and two seasons. So this is, like, definitely a concern, I think, in my book. Soft and slow is not a good combination for a front seven.

They've been there for four years, right? Grigson and Pagano, and the roster and the rank of their defense in terms of points allowed has not gotten any better. It's been one of the worst in the league. I would say the roster is probably worse. than it ever was. They poured resources into it, too. And when Caldwell was there, they were bad on defense, too, that second year.

And it hasn't improved whatsoever. And it's, I think it's the, I would say it's the worst AFC roster defensively. I don't think there is a worse one. I don't disagree. I was just thinking of Colleen's odds-and-end song, a cut from the show. No, please, I can't stop. I, I, I, I'm so terrible. Like, I can't.

It was a conversation that happened in the makeup room, and now I'm, like, really. flustered by it. I assume it's something we can't talk about on the show. Well, I had to do with like childbirth. Twitter.com slash... Totally different. I would prefer we not talk about it. You like working at your sign.

That is correct. Twitter.com slash Greg Rosenthal. Find the footage. Oh, no. All right, Wes. What did you have a shot? Well, Greg has his own team, the throne of these Patriots.

I don't know where he got this, that the defensive line is an issue. They have Pot Roast Knighton. Alan Branch played really well last year, and Malcolm Brown, their first round pick. They're set at defensive tackle. The problem is they don't have their quarterback for four games. That's the big concern.

That's fair. But they get him back, and he's one of the best players in league. When you get him back, you still get him back for 12 games. It's not like coming off an injury. I'd always take, I mean, not that you have the choice, but I always take a suspension than an injury. They're still going to go 12 and 4. It's just a matter if they're going to go 12 and 0 once Brady gets said.

They always start slow, though, don't they? I mean, the last couple seasons, they've started pretty slow. It's all relative because we always think that, but then they literally have gotten 12 and 4 every year that Tom Brady's been healthy. So, but they've had, obviously everybody remembers the Kansas City loss in their last Super Bowl year. Things were pretty, wherever they at that point after that loss. Two and two. Yeah, week four, week five.

That's about as bad as a guess. And that's all they really need to do with Garofalo behind. Janine? Janine Garofalo behind center. Could be bad. Jimmy Garapolo, excuse me. I forgot about him because he kind of fell off the radar. But now everybody could just dig up all their think pieces on Garapolo

now that they got deep sixth when Brady's suspension was thrown out. Just bring him back up. Nobody will like no difference. I'm so sick about a reading of all the appeals and everything. My eyes just start glazing over as soon as I see like embank. Running back's a problem. I don't even know, whatever. I'm bench.

I'm not sure about Dionne Lewis coming off at Torn ACL and Lagart Blunt, too. that's not a great combo you got. I know much better than what they had in the playoffs. Yes. I haven't even heard anything tropey about Dionne Lewis, like, oh, Dionne Lewis looks like nothing ever happened to him, which is an audience. That's been out there that he's been doing well, yeah. Would you call it a trope alert?

They've underplayed. It hasn't been screaming headlines, so I'll give them credit. I got one here. Patriots running back Dionne Lewis could play if the season started next month. Oh, that's a trope. I love that trope. That is one. Player X could play if the season.

season started tomorrow all right i will throw out let's go back to the afc south the houston texans gregg you made a good point here everybody assumes oh that defensive line they have no concerns because you have j j j watt they're the best defensive player in the world but gregg you point out you can't start at two positions at once jared crick not there anymore they don't have a lot of depth there otherwise so you got to find somebody to pair them with and i'll also say jadavian clowny uh is someone to keep an eye on there because the trojan I think the trope machine's been buzzing with him a little bit, too. But we have really no evidence that he's going to be able to really put it together.

And they kind of need that other guy to kind of really make that defense come together. So that defense is a work and progress. Go quarterback again here. What has Brock Osweller shown us to think that he's going to be the answer? That's fair. I mean, I'm with you. I'm with you on that. When I'm looking at this, I'm thinking they're going to have a guy starting on their defensive line

who on paper doesn't have a lot of promise or experience, whether it's Devin Still, Christian Coventon, Brandon Dunn. I mean, it's not a good group when you're worried about losing Jared Crick. And to your quarterback point, I feel like DeAndre Hopkins made multiple quarterbacks look okay last year. So that helps. I don't think that that really does anything crazy good for him, but it definitely helps him maybe like come along.

I think Cosweiler can be at least at a whole. your replacement level, starting quarterback level. I think that's the minimum. I don't think it's that huge a weakness. What happens when you run into a mediocre chiefs team in the playoffs? You lose 30 to nothing. All right. Keep an eye out for Lamar Miller, Greg.

That might be a sandwich prop I lay out there a little. Nobody loves Lamar Miller like the in hands is. You know who? He's going to eat. Lamar's going to eat and he's going to eat the words. You know who else does? The scientists were having some fantasy talk like old. Sometimes, and West noticed how high Lamar Miller is getting drafted by fantasy.

Way too high. Like, how high? Something like early second round. Really? Yeah, first couple of picks in the second round. Take about 10, 12 receivers before you take Lamar Miller. No coaches ever trusted him in short yardage or goal line. No coaches trusted him to stay healthy.

Yeah, he's always had bad coaches. Well, and it's hard to put a defense and offense together all these new pieces in that you're just going to be good right away. That takes time. It doesn't work like that. Greg, do you want to expound upon anything that you wrote in this piece? I'm going to go with the Ravens and let's go with the cornerback situation. Although everyone's talking about the Ravens as a team that are definitely going to bounce back.

Everything looks good. People get healthy. I think that's all true on offense. They've got some holes on defense. I mean, they move Ladarius Webb to safety. Their number one cornerback is Jimmy Smith, who's a great player. He's had two surgeries this offseason. He might not, he hasn't been healthy for a while.

Wasn't a great player last year either. Right. Because of the surgeries. He had two more, and he might not be ready for the season. Their next cornerbacks are mid-round rookie picks, Kyle Arienton, who they want off the team. It's one of the worst cornerback groups, I would say, in the league. A lot of question marks.

Defensive end is a weird spot for them. They have Lawrence Guy, a couple of guys they drafted. Arthur Brown, you remember him, second round pick who's kind of been a bust. They'll do anything to not play him. But he right now, him or, who was it, Connor Orr's brother, Zach, or could be starting an inside lineback. Wow. A lot of question mark.

And you've got to face Ben Rafflesberger and that offense twice plus Andy Dalton. And your edge rushers are getting really old. Right. It's a defense. I'm not in love with the demons. I can see the offense getting a lot better. I don't blame you. All right.

You could check out all of Greg's commentary on NFL.com slash Rosenthal. There's an easy way to get to it as well. That's true. Great. Thanks, buddy. Good talk. Big week for Greg. Doing good.

There's a lot of love on that side of the table. Did you get your review or something? What's happening? I'm just saying Greg's doing a nice job. Oh, all right. Right church, wrong, pew, or whatever that phrase is. You're on to something here. All right, let's move on.

Before we get out of here, we want to hit the mailbag and, you know, go through some questions that the audience has. Of course, I had to cycle through all the ones who were like, if all of you were in a room, who would kill the other guys. It's like, no, we're not going to do those questions. If there, you know, if there's a zombie attack who gets you're on an island. If you're on an island, who slits whose throat. Like, we don't like doing those type of questions, guys. But there are some that I found. Especially because they all want to kill me first.

It's like so unfair. That's a lot. We want to kill you first or the readers do? I don't know. Oh, by the way, the study that we talked about, that I talked about, the estately study. Yes. Going back to that estate blog. It was done by a listener, apparently.

Really? Ryan Nickum. Yeah. Yeah, Nickum. Also, call back to Greg's previous callback. I love it. It dawned on me that Roy Green, old Cardinals, wide receiver, also played cornerback, and I believe had seven or eight exceptions one year.

Also, you could make the argument that Dion Sanders had a little success at wide receiver. A little bit. Can we move on for that topic now? No, we're going to come back in about six minutes. Talk about Charles Woods and Ann Rodwoods. Dionne had some nice moments. and sit wide out as a deep threat. All right, here we go.

We'll start with Charles Montoya at Chuck Man 21. Forget common man ranking. What is the cynical man ranking? Interesting question amongst the heroes and we'll open up this to the satellite heroes. Of course, Patrick and Connor, as well as Colleen will throw in. Lindsay will throw in the Irishman behind the glass, but there is not a cynical bone in that man's body.

So who is the most cynical? Wes, you're on the floor is yours. I think there's some sentiment that this might be Connor or. I think it's the boss, Greg Rosenthal, is the most cynical. The most cynical. I don't know if Sessler is pretty cynical. That's true, too. Moody.

What about Patrick, by the way? He's just angry. I disagree with that, Wes. Connor was the first person that comes to mind. I think he is the most cynical. I would put Patrick next. You know, I love things. Things that I love, I love them.

Area man loves things. I love football. I love my job. I love books. I love my family. Well, good for you. I got a lot of love. Just because you love your family doesn't mean you're not cynical.

Here's the dictionary definition of cynical. Distrusting or disparaging the motives of others like a characteristic of a cynic. Number two, this is an adjective just in case anybody didn't know. Showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, especially by actions that exploit the scruples of others. Three bitterly or sneeringly distrustful. I feel like that describes me pretty well. Contemptuous and or pessimistic.

Right. A pretty cynical group, I would say, in general. I have some homework for all of you cynics out there. Google Cherub, scorn, and Robert Frost. Okay. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Everybody take note of that.

You have an assignment when this podcast is done. I think I'm sneaky optimistic. I would put. All right. Wes and I at the bottom of the cynical rankings. I don't. I mean, Dan is not cynical. I don't think Wes is.

I've got some major issues, but cynicism isn't one of them. Wolfie, you've got a little bit of cynicism. I'm pretty cynical. Yeah. It's hard to say when you call someone cynical. Like, is that a shot? That's not real. No, I don't think so.

Like my mom is like a super cynic. It's kind of like locker room lawyer. Even though you just read the definition, I'm not sure I still fully understand what cynical means. Okay, let's move on. It's a great discussion. I don't know about this. Here we go.

Richard Hunter at Not That Hunter. Are the criminally under-discussed Chargers the best sleeper pick to make the playoffs in the AFC? All right, well, we call you bluff, Rich. We're talking Chargers, Greg. Love this question because I'm with you, Richard Hunter. I think the answer is yes. I like this Chargers.

What kind of cynic is this guy? I like this Chargers team. I was thinking, wow, for a 4-12 team, This is a good-looking roster, not a lot of big holes. Got Phillip Rivers. I do think they could be a playoff team. They might be one of my. And that backfield?

Foof. Okay, that's a little bit of a hole. Spice racks, Polly. Melvin Gordon? Oh, no. That was a cynic shot right there by Wolf. Spice Racks. Climb in the cynic shape.

Spice Rack. I agree with the question. Spice Rack would sell the Brooklyn Bridge for like three beans and some rice. Wow, super specific. Sorry, Spicer. It's not, they're not criminally underrated or whatever. They're on double secret. They're on double secret.

They're on double secret probation because you guys forced me into making them the team of ATL a couple of years ago. You're still holding? Yes. They were boring. Let it go, bro. But I do agree that they're the most likely AFC sleeper to make the playoffs. Next up, this one from Tom Perry Jones

at Tom Perry Jones What are the odds of you guys coming to London in 2016 We'll throw that one to the boss I don't know yet We have been working at it We've come up with some plans With a proposal that's in the process We haven't had a lot of progress lately

We've actually done homework We've done some work We are trying to make it happen It comes down to whether the shadowy league figures deem it a necessity or worth their investment to send all of us there. That's what we're trying to convince them of. Are you going, Colleen? I would love to go. I think what we should do is stand outside the shadowy league figure's office, sort of like the guy in New England who's standing outside Gillette Stadium waiting for a trial.

I think we should just stand and wait it out until they say yes and just like a holdout of sorts. What do you think the shadowy league office looks like? It's like the light is really dim. Everybody has like top hats on. You never see any of their face. Here's the thing. If any shadowy league figures listen to this show, this is a good time to tune in.

You can send people to go talk, you know, on camera. Maybe they're going to write one thing during the week. Probably not. Or you can send people that are going to write 15 to 20 things. do some reporting and can still do the podcast and do the podcast where we put 150 whatever it is listeners into a bar and we can still do the same talking on the camera you don't even have to send the camera people Greg that's a lot of original content 600 listeners in a bore listen or so or Mexico what about Mexico Mexico I would love that

maybe that would be fun too all right let's move on Zach Silver at Legume M.A underscore Dupree. Okay, bro. Instead of, this one was also sent to Colleen, so I'll ask you first, Colleen. Instead of building the, quote, perfect QB, as we did on Wednesday's podcast, could you build the perfect RB running back? So I would think I will go through a list of things. The perfect running back, Colleen, for speed, speed alone. For speed.

God. I feel like I just want to put, like, Levy on Bell for everything. Wow. Wow. But who's the fastest running back in the league right now? Well, Wes, you do those next-gen stats. Oh, that's true. David Johnson recorded the fastest running back speed with the ball in his hands.

Let me guess 21 miles per hour. 22. No way. And held that spot all year long. Okay, so David Johnson, that's solid. All right. Shady's not a bad guy just for speed. Gertley.

Shady more for cut. Elusiveness. Wait, this next one, cutting ability. Oh, that's. McCoy probably shady unless Wes I know you think he might be on the other side now I wouldn't have a person of his character on my football team oh or Amir Abdullah uh if we're going by the top alert mm-hmm how about a field vision got it you got to have that when you're making your way through the line I feel like that's Levion I think I I I don't know an upset there is

Todd Gurley that I think Todd Gurley that that is the thing I think that separates him as he came to like well the fact that he can do everything that's something that that that you You can't teach that he has. Levyon is so patient. All right. How about power? Adrian Peterson. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah. That's a home run. You ever shake that guy's hand? Marron. Really? He'll crush it. Yeah.

Shuck his hand in NFL honors. And like. Be sure to not do that then. No, I'm not even joking around. Like, I've, you know, probably shook the hands of thousands of people now in my life. Humble brag. Wow. Okay.

Whoa. All right. Oh, Mr. Gladhander. Yeah. I've met many. Many. humans and let me tell you Adrian Peterson has by

far the strongest grip which is funny because he's had ball security problems in his career especially in big games but all right and lastly so yes but he's the most powerful back receiving ability that's got to be Levi-on right yeah or Forte oh I like that

Forte is up there but probably coming to the end of his career Gore was up there I'll take the best I'll take the best by far receiver among running backs last year Dionne Lewis. Oh. That's true.

Not just his ability to catch the ball, but smoking linebackers off the line of scrimmage with ease. And this one, you know. Or Doug Martin. I don't know how this became a category. It's like leadership or something. Intangibles. I don't even know what that means, so nobody.

Danny Woodhead. That would be pluck. Intangibles. I thought we were going with it. Yeah, we're deciding on intangibles are not a thing people should make. like Forte would be a good intangibles guy DeAngelo Williams. Dan, why don't you give it to Lamar Miller?

Lamar Miller is the perfect category. The perfect machine. All right. Do we got anything else? No, I think it's about it. We'll see if anyone asked something in the last time. Frank Gore would be a good intangibles guy. Yeah.

Greg's boy. Absolutely. He's in the Greg Rosenthal Hall of Fame. He's a new stable. He is maybe the number one spot in the stable. What do players get? when they go to the stable or the Hall of Fame. Well, Wes is really the one who holds a real stable together.

What is your policies? Maybe we'll revisit it. I don't have any policies. It's easy to get kicked out, though. Just ask Odell Beckham. All right. And last question. This also from Tom Perry Jones.

Good job, Tommy. What is the music that plays over our outro at the end of each show? Well, it's this. oh yeah that's it called well look at that the outro this is dan hansa signed off for connie fox the mailman the boss and irish behind the glass see you next tuesday Skape's telecoval canincognosis. P-N-E-U-M-O-N-O-U-L-T-R-A-M-I-C-R-O-S-C-O-P-I-C-O-E-R-O-C-O-N-O-C-O-N-I-R-E-H-R-E-H-H-R-R-E-H-HARTP-E-HARTP-E-HARTP-E-HARTP.